Paper Trail Of Accusations Follows Local Doctor

A physician facing allegations of misconduct is also known as a veteran, church leader and volunteer.

Dr. James Howard Shegog is a deacon at the First Baptist Church in Hampton and a member of the Virginia War Museum Foundation's Board of Trustees.

He's a Vietnam War veteran and a retired Army colonel. He raised two children, one of whom grew up to become a major in the military and the other a university professor. He even helped raise the son of a friend after his friend died.

Shegog, whose privileges at Mary Immaculate Hospital stretch back 20 years, has earned praise for his compassionate care from relatives of deceased loved ones who mentioned him in obituaries.

Yet Shegog, a 65-year-old York County resident, finds himself at the center of controversy. His medical license was suspended this month following a meeting of the state Board of Medicine. The board suspended his license pending a May hearing in connection with the death of a patient who died of an overdose of OxyContin and Xanax, drugs the board says were prescribed by Shegog. Medicine Board documents do not identify patients.

Shegog has declined to comment.

News of the suspension led many people to call and write the Daily Press to express concern over Shegog's treatment of their friends and relatives.

In fact, Shegog was sued four times by relatives of former patients, court documents show. In each case, Shegog's treatment of patients was called into question. He prevailed in one case, was dropped as a defendant in another, has one case pending, and lost one in 2004 but has appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court.

When suspending Shegog's license, the state board said "the continued practice of Dr. Shegog constitutes a substantial danger to the public health and safety."

The suspension order also stated that Shegog met with board members to discuss "alleged substandard medical treatment" of 34 patients from about 1992 to 2004.

Shegog, who received his medical degree from Ohio State University, worked as an Army doctor, serving at Fort Monroe from 1981 to 1989, according to a Web site affiliated with Baylor University, from which Shegog received a degree.

From 1989 to 1991, he served as deputy commander of clinical services at Fort Eustis Army Base before entering private practice in Newport News in 1991.

Within a year, he began treating a patient for back pain who later told Shegog she was addicted to Vicodin, according to allegations outlined in the Virginia Board of Medicine report.

For nine years, Shegog continued to practice medicine in the area after he first appeared before the state Board of Medicine on allegations of "indiscriminately and excessively prescribing" drugs.

Those charges were dismissed without explanation in early 1997. The Virginia Board of Medicine does not explain its rulings.

Howard Shegog isn't the only member of his family to run into problems with a medical board.

His brother, Don Shegog, had his medical license in Kentucky placed on probation in 1999 after a Kentucky Board of Medicine inquiry into allegations that he was over-prescribing medications to 23 patients, according to Kentucky Board of Medicine documents.

Don Shegog told a Kentucky medical investigator that he "sometimes has too big of a heart and has a difficult time saying no to patients when they request medication because they are in pain or upset," according to Kentucky Board of Medicine documents.

Don Shegog, who lives in the Cincinnati area, is also on probation by the Ohio Board of Medicine for failing to notify the agency of the Kentucky investigation. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

In Virginia, court and Board of Medicine documents state that Howard Shegog was "grossly careless in diagnosing patients and prescribing drugs" that included OxyContin, Xanax, Vicodin and Percocet. He was writing prescriptions even as patients said they were addicted to drugs, and he noted in records that he suspected they were right, according to state Board of Medicine documents.

In 1998, Shegog began prescribing OxyContin to David C. Terry, a patient recovering from back surgery, according to a lawsuit filed in 2003 in Richmond Circuit Court. Shegog, a number of other Virginia doctors and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, were being sued by Terry and other plaintiffs who claimed they became addicted to the pain-killing drug.

According to the lawsuit, Terry was not provided warnings associated with taking OxyContin and his family said "he became sick" from taking the drug in 2001. He was hospitalized, and the lawsuit says Shegog continued to prescribe his patient OxyContin even after his hospital stay.

Terry died July 19, 2001. His family contends that his death is associated with his OxyContin use, though an official cause of death is not listed in court documents.